Famous Folks Have Their Fixations

May 10, 1989|By CINDY ADAMS, North America Syndicate

Yoko Ono is a workaholic. She may live with a guy named Sam Havadtoy, but the busiest feature in her bedroom is a piano and a typewriter.

Gwen Verdon is a saver. She saves keys. Any keys. Unused keys that fit nothing from locks that open nothing from doors that go nowhere from places that aren`t around anymore. They`re saved in jars. And why not toss them out, you ask? Or, at least, that`s what I asked. ``Because somewhere they locked something and, who knows, someday they might unlock something.``

With Jackie Mason it`s also keys. But not saving them. How`s losing them? Not getting into his own apartment because he can`t find them? His one-time secretary, Marcee, would make them up by the dozens. He`d wake her in the middle of the night, she`d throw on something, he`d come by, stick out his hand and she`d toss him yet another freshly minted job. Credit cards he had, money he had, phone numbers he had, a key he never had. Mason`s explanation? ``Doesn`t fit into my pocket.``

Ginger Rogers` compulsion is clothes. She has one entire room for all the peplums, dirndles and skinny outgrown dresses she has ever worn ... With Julio Iglesias it`s short pants that stop at the ankle. He`s convinced that brings luck ... Anthony Michael Hall, star of Sixteen Candles, hates the feel of cotton, as in cotton balls ... Sean Young keeps everything OUT. Scarves hang off lampstands, blouses adorn grocery shelves on her walls, shoes are in cartons in the living room.

Tommy Tune`s oddity is seating. Won`t sit with his back to the room. He doesn`t care if a restaurant sticks him in a draft or the smoking section. He just needs to sit against the wall. Actually, in a corner. A shrink would say it`s security. Back to the womb. A mobster would say it`s safety. The guy has seen too many movies.

Arlene Francis irons the wrapping paper off incoming gifts and reuses it. Bess Myerson recycles flowers. Snakes out the card addressed to her and resends the bouquet. Morey Amsterdam goes one better. Once he got a maroon leather case of poker chips embossed in gilt letters, ``Morey Amsterdam.`` He restamped the word ``From`` on top.

Ice-skating star Tai Babilonia is a vacuumer. ``When I`m nervous, I clean. I guess it uses up energy. Mostly, I vacuum. I won`t say how things have been with me lately. Let`s just say my house is real clean these days.``

Anna Maria Alberghetti says that when the going gets tough, the tough go shopping: ``I have six closets crammed with just current clothes. And over 90 pairs of shoes. When I`m really unhappy, I buy shoes.``

Milton Berle travels with his own bedding. Also, a raggedy dog-eared pillow that Mummy gave him in his cradle. It`s his security blanket. He chews it. Also an audio gizmo that emits what`s called a white sound and which, when plugged in, sounds like soothing waves slapping against a shore and which, he claims, mutes taxis honking and garbage cans clanging. Also blackout curtains so he can sleep. Also, for just a week away, 14 pairs of identical gray slacks and 14 identical blue blazers. Uncle Miltie has raised eccentricity to an art form.

Maury Povich sleeps naked. Even in bitter winter. ``It`s not seasonal,`` he says. Even in the country where there`s little heat. ``It`s not geographical,`` he says. Not that that`s an oddity. But his missus, Connie Chung, also sleeps naked. And did they do it (sleep without jammies, that is) before their marriage? Maury, whose answer hadn`t much to do with my question, said: ``It was never an option.``

Morton Downey sticks his cigarette stubs on end when he`s finished. Like a picket fence. Why, he doesn`t know. The only thing he does know is that, ``I don`t really have any eccentricities.``

Multimillionaire Mickey Spillane types on an antique Remington manual. ``But that`s what I had when I started,`` he says. More. The man draws the shades, blackens the room in daylight and writes by one naked lightbulb at the desk. ``But that`s what I had when I started,`` he says.

Author Robin Moore of The French Connection and The Green Berets is another oddball. He rigs up an unending roll of paper, puts his machine on a high table and types standing up to maintain ``maximum alertness.`` And, he`s totally naked. ``I don`t even wear a wristwatch,`` he says. ``No constrictions. Nothing to keep my skin from breathing.`` Must be this guy spent too long writing The Happy Hooker.

Belinda Carlisle says life will be complete when she gets her own pig. Jill St. John also wants a pig: A pink one. Small. Maybe 300 pounds. ``I`ll christen him Prosciutto.``

Even presidents have idiosyncracies. Kennedy`s was sex. An about-to-be published bio reports that John F. Superstud believed that a woman a day keeps the doctor away ... Well ... what the heck ... at least it wasn`t fattening.